Even Sam Smith’s mum sometimes struggles to remember to use their pronouns
Sam Smith. (Marc Piasecki/WireImage)
Queer icon Sam Smith has revealed that even their mum struggles to remember to use their pronouns.
The British Dancing with a Stranger singer, currently in Australia after their first-ever performance at Sydney’s Lesbian and Gay Mardi Gras and afraid to return home because of coronavirus, made the comments on Australian talk show The Project.
Sam said that their mum, Kate, still “trips up” and refers to them with he/him pronouns.
“I say to my mum all the time – she will be calling me ‘he and him’ and she is getting angry at herself and it’s OK,” they said. “But it is important, you know?”
Smith added: “All I can say is that when people use my pronouns correctly, it’s a wonderful feeling. I feel safe, I feel happy, and I feel completely seen.”
The 27-year-old said it’s OK to trip up on people’s pronouns, and that they still make mistakes themself.
“I trip up too! Of course I do, I’m a human being. I have been called ‘he and him’ since the day I was born, you know, 27 years of my life, so I can understand,” Sam said.
Sam Smith has previously said that making the Dancing with a Stranger video with Normani prompted them to come out as non-binary.
Revealing that they made Dancing with a Stranger after a break-up, when they wanted to write a song about freedom instead of a sad ballad.
They told Billboard: “I had just gone through a breakup and the last thing I wanted to do was write a sad song.
“I was listening to a lot of really sexy music because it made me feel better, so I wanted the song to capture what I was doing: going to clubs and kissing people.”
They added that: “The song launched me into a really beautiful space of writing and freedom. There’s a femininity within that song that has ignited a flame within me; it triggered the transition I’ve made into a non-binary person.”
Sam Smith came out as non-binary and genderqueer in March last year, saying – on an episode of Jameela Jamil’s Instagram Live show, I Weigh interviews: “When I saw the words ‘non-binary’ and ‘genderqueer’ and I read into it and I heard this people speaking, I was like “F**k, that’s me.'”
